


Beyond the Well

by TunnelRabbit



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, F/M, Modern Era, Mutual Pining, Time Travel, What if Kagome could still time travel without the well?, sort of post-canon anyway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-05-18 01:32:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14843048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TunnelRabbit/pseuds/TunnelRabbit
Summary: Kagome has returned to the Modern Era and the well is closed--forever, she thinks. But somehow, without her knowledge, Inuyasha slipped through after her....





	1. The Well Is Closed

**Author's Note:**

> The point where this diverges from canon is a little vague—at some point before The Final Act, the Sacred Jewel and Naruko are somehow taken care of and Kagome and Inuyasha have run out of excuses to keep working together.

Kagome skittered down the hundred steps to the street, backpack bouncing on her shoulder, leaping through the _torii_ that separated the shrine from the street. Inuyasha thought of the little green skirt she used to wear a little wistfully, but the darker, longer skirts she wore now, with a soft cardigan like the ones she used to wear shopping, made sense. She was no longer a girl. And apparently students at the university weren't required to dress the same way. Sometimes she even wore those _jinzu_ —he didn’t know how anyone could _move_ wearing pants so tight, much less run to the bus stop like that.

He did not follow the bus. Today, she had a course called “research methods,” and it made no sense to him. Often, he did catch her history lectures, perched outside a window of the lecture hall, which were kind of interesting, and found himself strangely intrigued by the course on how the Japanese language had changed over the centuries. It explained a lot. He was also enjoying her English class, as a sort of guessing game—the more overseas movies and TV he watched, the more words he could catch. He’d never get to where she was—no way he was sitting through all those grammar lessons—but he liked puzzling out the bizarre language. Like stalking prey with nothing but ears and brain.

Today, he retreated to the tree tops of Ueno Park, where he amused himself plucking pigeons out of the sky without being seen (he let them go; he wasn’t hungry) and watching the Tokyoites and tourists below, catching bits of their babble, until Kagome came home.

There were youkai here, too. He could smell them. But strangely, he never saw them. Were they disguised as humans now? Or had they simply faded, until little was left of them but their disembodied spirits? (Could a spirit have a smell?) He’d spent days and weeks tracking this or that demonic scent, unable to pinpoint its source. After half a year or so, he’d given up. He didn’t really care.

He disguised himself, of course. He couldn’t spend his entire life on rooftops and in trees. The attention-grabbing fire rat clothes were stashed out of sight in the rafters of the old well house where he slept, and he wore grey sweats and a t-shirt most days, with a strangely puffy knitted hat he’d picked up somewhere. It hid his hair and ears better than other hats he’d tried. 

Sometimes he’d leave Tokyo all together, roam the countryside, make trouble. With no youkai to fight, he was a fusebomb looking for a chance to explode. But he never got caught.

Around 5:00, he caught up with Kagome’s bus and followed it back to the shrine. Her footfalls were heavier, trudging back up the long stairs, and her bag seemed heavier too. He clenched his fists to keep himself from jumping across the street to help her. It’s not like she was in danger—far from it. She didn’t need him.

 

* * *

 

“I’m home!” Kagome called out, as she shuffled out of her sneakers and into her house slippers, dropping her bookbag to the floor with a loud thud.

“How was your day?” her mother called out from the kitchen.

“Fine,” Kagome answered, the ritual complete. She flopped down at the table and cracked open one of her books at random.

“Wasn’t today the archery tryouts?”

She jumped. She hadn’t noticed her grandfather in the corner behind his newspaper. She must be really spaced out. “Oh, uh, was it?” She flipped open her phone and scrolled to the calendar. “Shoot, you’re right."

“Did you miss them _again,_ Kagome?” Her mother stuck her head out of the kitchen, a furrow in her brow.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, bending over her book again.

Her mother and grandfather exchanged a worried glance over her head. “We’d just like to see you involved in campus life somehow. And you were such a good archer in the Sengoku Jidai, weren’t you…?”

“Yeah, pretty good….” Good at backing up Inuyasha’s claws and sword with her purifying arrows. Good at shooting demons when life and death were on the line. She wasn’t sure what the point was, when it was just paper targets. Kagome imagined trying to purify one and sending everyone at the range into a panic when her target went up in a blinding flash of purple. She giggled.

“What’s so funny?” Her grandfather leaned over her, peering at the text, which was not funny at all.

“Nothing, Grandpa.” Just her ridiculous life. “Is Sōta home yet?”

“He’s got practice tonight. Come set the table, Kagome.”

The three ate in relative silence, then Kagome excused herself to her room to study.

She was acing all her courses. Quite a change from high school. Passing the university admission exam had been a shock—to everyone, but to no one more than Kagome. She honestly did not know how she’d done it—maybe some residual supercharge from the Sacred Jewel gave her an unfair advantage, because she knew she hadn’t studied enough.

Her best score was in history, and so she was now a history major. She had no idea what she was going to do with it. She had no idea why she was studying so hard—no one else did, at university in Japan. Her classmates were partying, dating, working part-time, falling in love—stumbling into adult life.

But Kagome had already done the work of a lifetime. Had already found the love of her life. What purpose did she have in 21st-century Tokyo?

She sat at her desk, book open, but with no real intention of reviewing any more. She was all caught up anyway. She stared out the window into the fading twilight. Her eyes, as usual, were drawn to the well house, its dark roof barely visible under the shadow of the trees.

_Inuyasha._

Ten months now since she’d left him behind in the Sengoku Jidai, and the sense of his presence hadn’t faded at all. Like he was going to spring out of the well at any moment.

But the well was closed. She’d closed it herself. He hadn’t wanted her, so she was back where she belonged. To stay.

Inuyasha was not coming out of the well again, and she was never going back through. She closed her eyes to ride out the stab of pain that always shot through her heart, chasing that thought.

There was Goshinboku, Inuyasha’s tree. Once, they had spoken across time through the tree. More than spoken—he had held her in his arms, or so it seemed. She’d tried to reach him that way again, after the well closed. And again, and again. But he never answered. But then, that connection would be drawn through the well, too. Same wood, same closure.

She stared hard at the tree now, focusing her pain and frustration and _willing_ it to conduct her love, through its roots, through time itself.

Impossible.

Except—she felt it again. That pulse of power, infusing her body like she was preparing to purify. Purify what? There was no demonic energy here, no corruption of that sort. And she could do nothing to purge the petty corruption of the modern world (she’d tried). But her miko power was still there, waiting, without purpose.

 

* * *

 

Inuyasha stiffened, ears erect. There was that power again, coming from Kagome’s bedroom. It was only her—he could never mistake the aura—but there was always the faint hope that something might come of it. He didn’t know what—just _something_. It couldn’t fade to nothing like the youkai power, not Kagome’s.

 _“Inuyasha!”_ A sharp whisper came from below. He dropped from the roof of the well house, where he’d been crouching out of Kagome’s line of sight, to land softly in front of Sōta.

“Whatddya got for me?”

Sōta carried a thermos of hot water in one hand and a plastic bag on his other arm. “Ramen, ramen, octopus-flavored potato chips, ramen,” he said, giving the bag a shake. “And a bag of dried squid, because you’ve _got_ to eat some protein.” He paused and looked up at the hanyou earnestly. “I’m getting a little worried about your diet, to be honest. It’s not healthy, Inuyasha.”

“Keh. If I’m stuck in your century, I’m gonna eat all the ramen I want. Hand it over.”

Sōta was no fool. He gave up the goods without another word. Frowning faintly, he watched Inuyasha pour hot water into the noodles, crouched in the shadow of the eaves.

“Next time, you go shopping yourself. Mom’s starting to wonder what’s making me late all the time.”

“You got _money_ for me to shop with?”

The boy grumbled and dug a few coins out of his pocket. “What happened to the money you earned for making those deliveries?”

“Gone. That was weeks ago! How long’d you think that was gonna last?”

“So get another job!” Sōta snapped at him. Not like him. Inuyasha felt a flash of guilt at the secret he was asking the kid to keep. It was no small thing. But what was he supposed to do? Crash back into Kagome’s life—her _real_ life—and ruin it completely? She missed him, maybe (he wasn’t deaf), but she was better off without a wild hanyou to look after. Training for the life of a Heisei Era miko, he supposed. Whatever that was going to mean. All _he_ really needed was someone to buy him ramen.

And Kagome. He needed Kagome. So he couldn’t go back, either, even if he'd known the way.

Sōta crouched next to him, mirroring his squat, staring out into the darkness, lost in his own thoughts.

Inuyasha was well into his third bowl, slurping noisily, before Sōta spoke up, so quietly he wouldn’t have heard him at all on a human night.

“Are you ever gonna tell her?”

He looked up, the last noodle hanging out of his mouth, and stared at the kid. Gently, he set the bowl down and wiped his mouth. Not like they hadn’t talked about this, way back at the beginning.

“No.”

“You want her to ‘have the life she deserves.’ You want her to ‘move on.’”

He nodded once. “So why you askin’?”

Sōta stood up abruptly, making a sound under his breath that sounded suspiciously like “keh.”

“Well, _I_ want her to be happy, and she’s not.” He grabbed the thermos and stalked back to the family house, shoulders bunched.

Ramen long gone and the bowls and wrappers in the trash (he was very careful to leave no trace of his presence), Inuyasha perched on the hip of the well house roof, in full view of Kagome’s window, should she choose to look his way. She wouldn’t, because she was already in bed. He could smell the lotion she used before sleeping. Could hear her through the half-open window, shifting under the covers, getting comfortable.

He watched over her until morning, and listened to her breathing soften the night.

 


	2. The Truth Will Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _A corner of her heart seemed comforted. Perhaps that pulse of power had simply restored some piece of her soul she’d given over to him. Perhaps she had it back again, imbued with the color of his soul._

_10 months earlier...._

It was done. The Sacred Jewel had been made whole, then destroyed; Naraku was no more.

After euphoric celebration (Kagome would afterwards swear that she saw the corner of Sesshomaru’s mouth the twitch upwards, as Rin and even Jaken leapt and danced around him), Inuyasha’s band returned to the village. Only then did it really hit them—Kagome, Shippo, Miroku, and Sango sitting at the hearth; Inuyasha leaning against the wall, Tessaiga in his arms.

“So…what now?” Shippo addressed the elephant in the room.

A conversation passed between Miroku and Sango through a long look exchanged.

With his betrothed’s tacit go-ahead, Miroku announced, “Sango and I will marry before the year is out.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful!” Kagome exclaimed. “I'm so happy for you!” She gave Sango a big hug, grinning like a fool.

“Thank you, Kagome-chan,” Sango said, when they let each other go. “We were thinking we might settle here, if the village would have us.”

“They’d be stupid not to,” Inuyasha scoffed. “Living this close to the forest and the bone-eater’s well. Why wouldn’t they welcome two of the world’s best demon hunters?”

“And a monk, besides!” Kagome chimed in encouragingly. “And Shippo? He’ll stay here, too?”

“Of course!” Miroku said. “Shippo is family now.”

Shippo smiled happily, but didn’t seem surprised. They must have discussed this already. The little fox turned to Inuyasha and glanced back at Kagome. “What about the two of you?”

Kagome had been trying—very successfully—not to think about this question at all for weeks now, ever since it became evident that they were heading into the final battle for the jewel. There was nowhere to hide now. She made the mistake of making eye contact with Inuyasha. He froze, like a rabbit caught out in the open under the eye of a hawk (though she felt as un-hawk-like as possible).

It made it impossible to tell what he was thinking, beyond his usual anxiety over making a decision, all mixed up with fear of being sat. In other words, the usual. But this was not a usual moment. This was it. _This_ was when she would have to choose, and so would he.

She sensed the other three exchanging meaningful looks, and probably eye rolls. The silence and stretched on well beyond merely “awkward” and was creeping up on “horrible.”

It was broken by Kaede, coming back in with a pot of water for the fire. She took in the scene before her. “You have some decisions to make.”

Kagome nodded slowly. Inuyasha looked down, glowering at the floor.

“Now that the task is completed, the reason I gave you for working together is gone. Kagome may go back home to follow her original life’s path.”

“Is that what you want, Kagome?” Sango reached out and touched her shoulder.

“I—I miss my mother. And Sōta and my grandfather. And soft beds and instant foods and—and _sugar_. And movies. I was going to travel the world some day—I wanted to see New York and Paris and the pyramids of Egypt. We have airplanes, you know, so you can fly to the other side of the earth in just a few hours—all you need is money. I was going to become a businesswoman and get rich! And give half my money back to the shrine, of course—if Sōta would take over the priesthood. Or maybe I would become the priest, if he wanted to do something else. And—” The dreams poured out of her, forgotten until now. But she choked on “get married someday,” and those words stayed lodged in her throat.

Inuyasha had turned away.

“But I _never_ could have imagined I would lead this life, and what would happen to me here. I _never_ could have imagined everything that we've seen and done—impossible, beautiful, terrible things. And what I would _feel.”_

Everyone seemed to be waiting for something more to be said, but Kagome had run out of dreams to share. She could imagine this world well enough now. But what future could she have in the Sengoku Jidai, now that the demon threat was taken down? She could become a miko, like Kikyo, she supposed, but she didn’t have the training. And she just wasn’t…like that. So serious, so tragically single-minded. And mikos must be maidens, so what if she got married? What then? Could a woman be a priest in this era? She hadn’t met any. Could she be just a villager, raising children and growing rice? That’s assuming she even had a husband….

“Keh.”

Everyone held their breath.

“So what’re you waiting for?” he tossed off, still not turning back towards the hearth. “There’s nothing for you here, is there?”

She heard Sango’s sharp inhale, and Shippo’s stifled squeak behind her, but didn’t look up from her lap. She couldn’t. It felt like her blood was draining from her body, puddling cold on the floor around her.

“You could be happy at home. You could really _be someone.”_ Finally, Inuyasha turned around, stood up. But he didn’t go to her. “Go back home, Kagome. Be with your family. You’d be nothing here.” And then he left.

She was too stunned to cry.

 

* * *

 

Inuyasha sped into the forest. He couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Away from the warmth of the hearth, the love and comfort of family that he could never have.

Sango, Miroku, Shippo. That was a family unit that made sense, and the villagers knew them well enough to accept the little fox youkai. They’d have a whole litter of human pups, and Big Brother Shippo would keep them in line half the time and get them into mischief the other half. Of course, the humans would grow up faster than he would, so that would get a little odd—Inuyasha had never had any friends his age, so it hadn’t really mattered—but it would probably be ok. He’d never admit it to the kit, but Shippo was pretty mature for his age (whatever that was—he’d never asked).

Kagome would go home. She would grow to womanhood in the loving arms of the Higurashi family, safe from war and demonkind. She would be educated—far beyond anything she could hope to achieve in his era—and find some place for herself in a world where women did more than just have babies and keep house. She would make her world a better place. And she would not have to be killed in battle to do it. Instead, she would live to a grand old age, dying peacefully among her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And none of them would be hanyou, all of them would walk bare-headed through the streets of Tokyo, fearlessly showing their true selves.

And Inuyasha? Inuyasha would go back into the woods, in the lonely space between demon and human worlds where he was fated to be. And, when Kikyo decided it was time, he would follow her to the underworld. The only difference with his life before Kagome—before being sealed, before _Kikyo_ —was that now he would fight for those who couldn’t fight for themselves. Somehow or other he had become some kind of champion for the innocent victims of the supernatural. And that was ok. It was good to be useful.

He told himself he was satisfied with this forecast. All would be as it should be. And maybe he could shake this madness, this red thread binding his heart, dragging him through a jungle of confusion, vulnerable to every thorn and sting. At least Kikyo had cut through all that and exacted a promise from him, one he understood.

He stayed away, for the most part, the next few days. Kagome tried to reach him privately a few times, and he knew he should have talked with her. He knew it was _wrong_ not to explain his heart to her. But the thought of being close to her, drowning in her scent, maybe even ending up in one of her tenderhearted hugs, losing himself in those black eyes brimming over with horribly misplaced love—the thought was torture. He might crush her to his chest and never let her go.

He didn’t understand much about anything, especially love. But he knew well enough that if he loved her, he had to make sure she jumped through that well.

And she did. She jumped and was gone. A day later, a blinding flash of clear purple announced that the well was sealed.

Just in case, he’d spent long hours sitting down there at the bottom of the dry well. Just checking. And brooding. And, ok, crying a little.

One day, after a few weeks of lurking around Kaede’s village without purpose, he felt a pulse of Kagome’s power, as he sat perched on the edge of the well. Without a second thought, he jumped to the bottom of the well—and shot straight through time.

 

* * *

 

Mama and Grandfather and Sōta were so happy to have her back, for good, they hugged her and cried and held a family party. Kagome had not realized how painful her time in the past had been for them, and found herself teary-eyed with gratitude for their unquestioning acceptance. (But Sōta also cried for Inuyasha.)

The first few weeks were awful. She studied for her exams, prepared for graduation celebrations, but it was just a Kagome-shell going through the motions. Like she was a demon puppet of the real Kagome, still riding on Inuyasha’s back in the 15th century. She spent too many hours crouched at the edge of the Bone-Eaters Well crying. There was never anything down there but dry bones.

One particularly bad day found her sobbing at the foot of the Goshinboku, clutching at its roots, her guts in knots. She had been trying to reach Inuyasha through the tree again, but there was nothing. Just wood and sap and bark, which she clawed angrily and tore up her fingernails. She felt something welling up inside of her and thought she was actually going to throw up on the sacred tree. She hugged her belly and tried to hold it back, but instead of a dry heave, a surge of power pulsed through her and radiated outward. She sat up in surprise and looked around.

Nothing seemed any different. Except…

Inuyasha. For a moment, she’d felt his soul tugging on hers, that thread running through time. Then it was gone.

She felt cleaner somehow, like something had been released, something had been done. Calmer. The sense of security that Inuyasha’s nearness had always brought her seemed back. So maybe she really had touched him through the tree somehow. She laid her hand on the trunk but felt nothing more.

A sound in the well house made her jump, but it was only Boyu the cat, darting out through the sliding door. She hadn’t shut it completely, apparently.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that Inuyasha was near. He wasn’t, and even if he could be, he wouldn’t follow her here—he’d made that clear. The Sacred Jewel was destroyed and he was done with her. She screwed her eyes up tight, fisted her hands at her sides and marched back to the house. He was not there.

Later that evening, she crept back and checked anyway, cursing her weakness. He was not there.

Somehow, things got better after that. She could handle the grief and the loss and still live in this world. A corner of her heart seemed comforted. Perhaps that pulse had simply restored some piece of her soul she’d given over to him. Perhaps she had it back again, imbued with the color of his soul.

 

* * *

 

_The present...._

“Hey, there.”

Sōta lifted his head. “Oh, hi, Kagome.”

“Are you all right?” She squatted in front of him to look him in the eye.

Sōta was crouched at the foot of the Goshinboku, hugging his knees tightly and staring at the ground. “What? Yeah, of course I am. Just…you know, thinking.”

“You look really tense.” His sister cocked her head to one side, concerned.

Sōta shrugged. Then shook out his arms and straightened his legs. “Nah, I’m fine. Didn’t have the best day at school today, that’s all.”

“You want to talk about it?”

How could his sister be so giving? Here she was barely dragging herself through her own life without her heroic boyfriend (without knowing said boyfriend was literally _right here)—_ without any friends at all, really. She hadn’t made any at university and hardly ever hung out with Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi. She’d said they didn’t have that much in common any more. Which was obviously true.

He smiled at her, wishing he could give back what she wanted. _You can, idiot,_ said the voice of his conscience. _Not if I want to keep all my limbs attached,_ answered the voice of self-preservation. Why couldn’t she just figure it out for herself?

“No, it’s fine. Just regular school stuff, you know. My life’s pretty tame.”

“Sure, but it still helps to talk about it.” She settled down next to him in the cradle of a tree root. “You can tell me anything, you know.”

“I know,” he said softly, even though it wasn’t true. “I’m feeling a little overwhelmed, I guess. Stressed out. By all my classes, and my friends—Hiroshi’s not talking to Akira because he’s jealous that Midori likes him more. Akira, I mean. And all the weird stuff about our family and the shrine that I can’t tell anybody else.”

“But nothing unusual has happened here in almost a year. We’re back to normal.”

Souta continued as if she hadn’t said anything. “But then I think about what junior high was like for _you_ ,” he continued, “and the secrets _you_ had to keep, and trying to pass all your classes studying in the forest with demons attacking you from all sides”—Souta heard a soft snort in the branches above him, definitely not a bird—“and I think, ‘Souta, you are a wimp. Man up and deal with a little pressure.’”

Kagome put her arm around his shoulder and gave him a sympathetic squeeze. “Oh, Sōta. Just be thankful you _don’t_ have that that burden.”

Sōta cringed inside. Not what he wanted Inuyasha to hear her say. But maybe this was an opportunity to get it all out there. He swallowed his misgivings and forced himself to ask, “Do you regret it?” He was all-in now.

“Never.” _Thank goodness._

“It was worth it…because of Inuyasha?” He watched her carefully.

“Because of _everything.”_ Kagome’s face lit up, gazing off into the distance, transformed, for a moment, into that joyous fifteen-year-old again, in love. “Because of Inuyasha. I can’t imagine a life where I had never met Inuyasha. But no, that’s not true—someone put a spell on me once and made me _live_ that life. As if I’d never gone through the well. ”

“Really?” Another fantastical tale he’d never heard before. She’d be blowing his mind with them until they were old and grey. “That must’ve seemed pretty boring.” He giggled at the thought of thoroughly-normal Kagome.

“Oh, so much worse than boring. It was devastating. It was like I’d forgotten who I _was._ All the time, I knew I’d lost something, but I couldn’t remember what. Like I was walking around with a chunk of my soul was missing. I mean, I was, because Kikyo had it, which was why she was the one who could come into my dream and save me, but I still felt whole, sharing with Kikyo. Without Inuyasha, I felt hollowed out. There was no meaning.”

The leaves above them seemed conspicuously still, like the whole tree was listening.

“I felt that way after I closed the well, too,” she went on. “But I knew what I was missing then. I didn't think I could go on.

Sōta reached out and seized her hand. “But you have, you _are!”_

She smiled at him, but it was a sad smile. “Somehow, it’s a little better now, but I don’t understand why. I don’t love him any less. I don’t miss him any less. My life still feels…pointless. But I feel calmer, almost like he’s with me, like his spirit is here.” She turned to Sōta suddenly in alarm. “You don’t think he’s dead! And his spirit is haunting me?”

“No. I really, _really_ don’t.” Sōta grabbed her hand and in both of his and squeezed it, _willing_ her to get it.

“But it’s been almost five hundred years!” she wailed. “I don’t know how long hanyou live but there aren’t _any_ around now. He _must_ be dead! How did I never _think_ of this before?”

“Kagome, he’s _not dead.”_ He held her eyes with all the intensity he could manage, _tried_ to hold them, but all on their own, his eyeballs started to roll upward, towards the branches above them.

Kagome’s eyes widened slowly as understanding crept up on her. But instead of looking up, she froze, staring.

Her whisper hissed through the silence like a blade:

_“Osuwari.”_

 

*


	3. A Giant Hole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Kagome's furious. Inuyasha's three feet deep in concrete—and pissed off. Sōta's nervous. And Grandpa needs to call a contractor._

The impact reverberated throughout the shrine grounds.

Face down, starfished, white hair settling with the dust, in a crater of her making: it could be no one else. Inuyasha was here, in 2005. In grey sweatpants— _grey?!_

 _And he’d kept it secret._ He told Sōta. _Sōta_ , but not Kagome.

Slowly, struggling, Inuyasha pried his face off the concrete. “Ka- Kagome?”

“Inuyasha.” She stood, her voice was low in her throat and deadly, towering over him.

 _“Kagome.”_ His eyes—the golden eyes she’d longed to see just once more—quivered in fear.

“Osuwari.” Bam. “Osuwari!” Bam. “OSUWARI!” BAM. “OSUWARIOSUWARIOSUWARI!”

“Kagome, stop!” Sōta tugged her arm with both hands. “Stop!”

She couldn’t even see the dog for the clouds of concrete dust. She clamped her mouth shut, chest heaving.

“How long, Sōta?” She turned on him suddenly. _“How long has he been here?”_

Sōta quailed under her glare and shrunk back against the tree trunk. “I mean, a while, I guess. But I _couldn’t_ tell you, Kagome! He’d’ve torn my legs off!” His voice was getting shrill. “I had to give him ramen!”

“A while. Like, a day? A week?”

He shook his head slowly with saucer-eyes of terror. She folded her arms and took a step forward. “A…a—a year? Almost?” he squeaked.

Almost a year? Since before she’d started university? How was that possible? How did he even _get_ here?

Feeble groans could be heard from deep in the Inuyasha-shaped crater. 

“What has he— ? How—? Who else knows, Sōta?”

Sōta just shook his head. No wonder he’d been stressed out.

“Oh, Souta.” She pulled him into her arms, ignoring the flash of fear, then confusion in his eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

“Huh? Why are _you_ sorry?”

“I’m sorry you had to bear such a burden. Imposed on you by that _baka_ who didn’t have the balls to bring it to the one who _should_ have had it.” She released her brother and whirled back towards Inuyasha, fury rekindled.

A clawed hand was reaching out of the hole, groping for purchase. It froze at the change in Kagome’s tone.

Yeah, he _should_ be terrified. What the fuck was he thinking? Leaving her alone, taunting her soul with his presence? He was never getting out of that hole again!

“Osu—!” Sōta grabbed her from behind and slapped his hand over her mouth. “Mmph!”

“Give the poor guy a break, Kagome! He’s been as depressed and tortured as you!”

That made no sense. None! With yell of frustration, Kagome turned their back on both of those morons—let Inuyasha tear off Sōta’s legs for all she cared!—and stormed out of the shrine back out into the city.

 

\-----

 

When Inuyasha finally managed to pry himself out of his crater, neither of the Higurashi kids was around. He heaved himself up onto the edge, scowling back down into the crumbling pit. Grandfather Higurashi was gonna lose his shit over this.

Not Inuyasha’s problem. _He_ wasn’t the one who “sat” an innocent protector hanyou to within an inch of his life into three feet of concrete! He wanted to kill something. _NOW._

 _Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!_ He slashed at the sky and a pigeon fell in a shower of grey feathers, splattering blood on the pavement. He snarled in frustration. No _fight_ left in this era.

Where was Kagome? He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. She’d left. He leapt to the top of the stairs to track her scent, then halted. He would just get sat in the middle of traffic and then run over by a bus. And then there would be more questions. And Kagome would be more furious than ever. 

Sōta, then? Gone, too.

Well, he didn’t need no one. He was Inuyasha. _Singular_. He crossed his arms stubbornly over his chest.

Aw, fuck it. The gig was up. He stomped up to the house and into the kitchen.

Mama Higurashi walked in a half hour later, an armful of full of groceries blocking her view. She set them down with a sigh and jumped back with a shriek. “Inuyasha!” 

Inuyasha looked up from his bowl. “Yeah, I’m back.”

Mama set herself down with a thunk on the chair across from him, hand on her heart. She looked kinda pale.

He frowned at her. “You alright?”

“I am so sorry, Inuyasha. It’s just a bit of a shock. Of course, please do help yourself.” She looked down at the table and raised her eyebrows. Right. He had sort of emptied the ice chamber of its contents.

“I was hungry, ok?”

“I’m—I’m sure you were. It must have been…how did you get here, exactly?” 

“Through the well.” he answered with his mouth full of radish pickle.

“Through the well, of course. The well is closed, I thought.”

“Yeah. ‘Swhy I couldn’t go back.”

“Couldn’t go back. So you’ve been here awhile then?” 

Dammit. He was going to have to fess up to everyone. Kagome’s mother was probably the easiest. “A few months. A year maybe.” 

She went even paler. He bounced up and filled a cup of water for her. “Here. Drink.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine. I—a _year_ , did you say? Here? At the shrine?”

“Mostly.” He didn’t meet her eyes.

“And Kagome…?”

“Just found out.”

“Oh dear.”

\----

 

Kagome stormed down the busy street, stomping as fiercely as loafers could stomp, ignoring the glances of consternation sent her way. 

He had been watching her all these months. Obviously. Hiding up in that tree and god-knows-where— _stalking_ her, basically. And he had done nothing. He probably thought he was protecting her. _No, Inuyasha, you were not protecting me, you were watching me suffer!_

Oops, she’d said that aloud. She slapped a hand over her mouth and ducked her head to avoid the judgy looks from passersby. 

She had to go somewhere—away, out. She wanted to _kill_ something. Maybe she should have joined the archery team—at least then she would have had access to a weapon. 

But she had only the one: making that dog _sit!_

She almost turned back to the shrine for another round. Sōta, though. He’d protected Inuyasha. A different kind of anger simmered up inside her. The protective growl of an older sister, twisted with disappointment in her brother. Inuyasha wasn’t the only one who’d been watching her suffer.

And now that she knew? They’d cringed in terror. _Both_ of them. Pathetic. Well, they’d earned her wrath. Let them stew a little longer, and wonder how the axe would fall. She folded her arms decisively with an evil smirk.

That was the look on her face when a familiar smiling face invaded her field of vision, eyes alight with excitement.

“Kagome? Kagome! Omigod, it’s been so long!”

“Oh! Uh, hi, Yuka.” Kagome forced herself out of her vengeful daydreams. “Wow, it’s so nice to see you! How’ve you been?”

“Fine, fine. But where the heck have you _been_ , Kagome?” Impulsively, she gripped Kagome’s upper arm.

“I haven’t gone anywhere!” …not this time, anyway. “Just studying hard, I guess.”

“In _university?”_ Yuka scoffed. “You are missing the point, my friend. Oh, don’t tell me you’re still dating that weirdo with the long hair?”

“Uh, no. No, we broke up a long time ago.” Whatever else had happened, that certainly was true.

“Then there must be someone new by now! I want to hear everything. Come on, let’s get a drink!” Yuka slid her hand down to link arms with Kagome and dragged her over to a nearby alleyway. “I love this place—I’m here every Saturday night. But for you? I’ll drink on a Thursday.”

 

\-----

 

Inuyasha was comfortably seated on a soft cushion in the warm living room, satiated (for now), watching the moving picture box—something about a round-headed blue creature that might have been a cat—as Mama Higurashi clattered cheerfully in the kitchen, making an extra-special dinner in his honor, she said. Maybe he should have come out a while ago, he thought with a sigh.

“Mama!” The shoji rattled open and Inuyasha sprang to his feet, poised to fight or flee, remembering why he'd stayed hidden. “Something has happened!” 

“What is it, Grandpa?” Mrs. Higurashi rushed to the door to help the old man in. 

“There’s a hole—a chasm—in the concrete! And blood! Where are the children? _Where are they, Mama?”_ He grabbed her by the shoulders in a panic.

“I don’t know!” She sounded worried now. “Kagome left when—”

 _“Inuyasha?”_ The old man froze in his steps. 

“Sorry about the hole.”

“What did you _do?_   Why are you here?” He grasped the doorframe for support. Inuyasha wondered how old he actually was.

“Do? _I_ didn’t do nothing. That was all Kagome. She sat me harder than I’ve ever been sat. I mean, she’s hammered me into the ground like that before, but there’s no _concrete_ in my time. Damn, that stuff is merciless. And dusty.” He’d been sneezing for a good half hour afterwards. “Keh.”

 _“Kagome_ did that?” The old man looked at Mrs. Higurashi for confirmation, but she just shrugged. “But—the blood!”

“Oh, sorry. I got angry. It was just a bird, don’t worry.”

The old priest shook his head, running a hand through his thinning hair. “This is going to need a purification ceremony. And a contractor. Mama, who did we get after the earthquake last year?”

“Let me check the rolodex.”

And that was that. Sensible people, these Higurashis. 

“Dinner will be ready in about 15 minutes.”

“Where _are_ Kagome and Sōta?” The old man looked to him for some reason.

“How should I know?” He got a raised eyebrow for that. “Fine. I'll sniff ‘em out.”

“No, no!” Mrs. Higurashi called from the kitchen. “Probably better if I just call her on the phone.”

Right. The pocket message box that Kagome carried everywhere now. She couldn't sit him through _that!_ …Or could she? 

Inuyasha positioned himself on a set of cushions a good distance from the table her mother had laid out. Just to be safe.

He heard her saying something into the phone machine, but it was Sōta's scent that approached—a scent tinged with fear. But Kagome wouldn't hurt _him,_ what was _he_ afraid of. The kid broke into a nervous sweat when he saw Inuyasha, and Inuyasha vaguely remembered saying something about tearing his limbs off, a while back. As if he ever would. He gestured for the boy to come sit down, with a "what's-done-is-done" shrug. 

“Kagome met a friend,” Sōta supplied, when the adults asked. “I saw them at the ramen shop in Ameyoko.” 

“Oh,” was all her mother said, a little sadly. The old man grumbled and shook his head.

Inuyasha supposed he was glad. He could eat his meal in peace, and he tucked in with vigor. Mrs. Higurashi was a very good cook. But the ramen shop? Really? That was low.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, still don't know where I'm going with this. But I got in an Inuyasha mood again.

**Author's Note:**

> To be honest, I don't know where I'm going with this, but I've got the next couple chapters written, so what the heck, I'm posting it. 
> 
> Kudos and comments much appreciated!!


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